For the one person that gets it
making the case for rarified references
One question kept coming up in the editing process of Friends in Napa:
“Will readers get this?”
“This” referred to a lot of things. For example, M.I.L.F.s without borders:
This editor had a point. M.I.L.F. is not as well known of an acronym as O.O.O., which is referenced a page or so previous, though I’d argue that if you came of age in the era of American Pie and Stifler’s mom, you know exactly what a M.I.L.F. is.
It’s also a joke that not everyone will get. (Some might even be offended!) But I wanted to include it because it harkens back to a very real woman — a divorced mother of two, if memory serves — who referred to herself as a M.I.L.F. without borders on a flight I took to Manzanillo several years ago.
The 9 best beach resorts in Mexico
Is it time to plan a beach getaway? (When is it not?) If you live in the contiguous United States, Mexico is among the most reliable destinations for sun, sand, and cerulean blue bodies of water. There are direct flights from several major cities, and there are so many parts of Mexico to explore.
My friend Michelle was sitting next to me and overheard it as well; we giggled and tucked that joke in our back pockets for future reference.
This was that future reference. Frankly, I think it’s a very clever way to describe one’s intent to … bed individuals without discrimination, geographic or otherwise. I see you, Carrie Coon!
I also think it would do well on a sweatshirt, if anyone wants to make one.
The point is that, while the reference may have gone over the head or gotten under the skin of certain readers, I ultimately included it because it made me laugh. It made Michelle laugh. And God willing, I hope it made someone else out there laugh.
I also drop a great variety of brand names in my fiction; Capital One, Zalto, Frette, Cadillac, American Airlines, the list goes on. Some reviewers have taken issue with that; one wondered if Capital One paid me for inclusion in The Goddess Effect. LOL. I wish! If you work for a multinational bank or other monied entity and would like to sponsor a future work, slide on into my D.M.s, I’ll write you right back!
I use brand names because specificity matters. Anita, the protagonist of The Goddess Effect, calls out her Starry Night-themed Capital One because it’s burning a hole in her brain, and if you’ve ever been in credit card debt, you know what I’m talking about. That piece of plastic and the 18.99% A.P.R. associated with it (approximating here) haunts her dreams. Raj, in Friends in Napa, uses Zalto wine glasses because they are — trigger warning — the best wine glasses on the market, and if you know Raj, you know he only patronizes the best of the best. It’s his whole personality.
Stuff I’d actually buy part 2
Some of you liked the first iteration of this so let’s do another! Is anyone working anymore? Or are we all just searching for rogue discount codes?
Ambiguity has its place. In my forthcoming novel, Incidentals, I refer to a social media app but do not (to the best of my knowledge) reference Instagram, because referring to it simply as “the app,” as if there are no other apps, signals the significance it holds in my protagonist’s mind. It also does not, to me, feel ambiguous at all — what other app could I be talking about? — but then, I spend a lot of time on Instagram.
All of which is to say: don’t shy away from a rarified reference. Don’t worry if 99% of people won’t get it. There is Google. There is reading comprehension. They can connect the dots. And if they can’t? That’s fine. It wasn’t meant for them. It was meant for the one person that gets it.
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